Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Spinner dolphins

Spinner dolphins[edit]

Original - Spinner dolphins video

Reason: Great EV, captures behavior like spinning, tale splashing, swimming in packs
Articles in which this image appears: Midway Atoll; Spinner dolphin
Creator: Mbz1

Support as nominator --Mbz1 (talk) 16:14, 29 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Support Great video. Informative, and well-shot. Shoemaker's Holiday ^talk 17:12, 29 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Weak oppose Our photographs meet if not exceed professional quality standards. The background noise in this video does not meet the same expectations. I don't mean to be harsh, but I would expect the production of some short clips of dolphins to be something close to the quality I'd see on the Discovery Channel. Not saying it needs to be 1000 mb (and I know it can't be) and in HD, just saying that the presentation should be better to be a featured video. upstate NYer 00:48, 30 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Discovery Channel!!!! Please have some pity on me :) I would like to point out that my $700 video camera cannot be even closely compared to $50,000 video cameras Discovery Channel crews are using, not to mention their editing software, ~~not to mention I'm required to use "OGG" format only, which reduces the quality of course~~. No, my video is not and could not have the quality of the videos taken by Discovery Channel, but my video is good, encyclopedic video and it has a free license! --Mbz1 (talk) 01:24, 30 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's not the OGG format that reduces quality, it's the compression and codec used that determines the quality. The OGG format is just a 'container' format for the actual video data. You could have (but I wouldn't recommend it for file size reasons) used a much lower compression and the quality would be better. Ðiliff «» (Talk) 18:48, 30 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. I crossed out my statement about OGG format, but not about the quality of Discovery Channel cameras. The thing is I saw and even hod their cameras, when I went cage diving with great white sharks. We had two person crew from Discovery channel. I've never seen such cameras before! They had one that was put into water by a pole. As a matter of fact they filmed me in the cage with sharks using that camera, and copied their video to me. Too bad it was not me, who took it, and I cannot upload it here. Their other cameras were even more complex, and rather big. Once, when of of them was getting out of the cage, one of those video cameras was dropped into ocean by an accident. It did not sink, and they wanted to swim after it, but the dive master did not give his permission because 3 active sharks were around the cages. So the camera got lost. I asked them how much it was. I do not remember the price exactly, but it was very, very expensive. They said that home-owner insurance will probably cover the cost.--Mbz1 (talk) 20:26, 30 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I know, but all that aside, your $700 video camera is also over 10 years old judging by the date on the video. You can get a HD video camera these days for not much more than $700 now, and it would almost match broadcast quality cameras used by documentary filmmakers. Ðiliff «» (Talk) 09:44, 31 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I sure could, but I do not think I will ever again to go to Midway Atoll to study Spinner dolphins because it is what I was doing there - working as volonteer in the study group. --Mbz1 (talk) 01:29, 1 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose per UpstateNYer. To qualify: I don't think videos necessarily have to be pro quality: the difficulties introduced by motion and sound and cost of equipment may make it harder for unpaid contributors to produce pro-quality work, relative to still photography. It will be interesting to see if DSLRs with video can change this equation somewhat. But this video seems too close to the home movie end of the spectrum. Fletcher (talk) 22:30, 30 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose per Fletcher. Also, there is a rather abrupt series of cuts at 25-26s. NotFromUtrecht (talk) 09:00, 31 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. Agree with reasoning above. Video is definitely harder than still photography, but I'd like to see the dolphins without the chatter of tourists in the background. That's what I took from UpstateNYer's comments. It's not necessary to have Discovery Channel's camera equipment (besides which, the BBC does infinitely better nature documentaries!), but rather the attention to detail. More stability in the footage (admittedly difficult shooting from a boat and without a tripod), less non-natural noises in the background, etc. Ðiliff «» (Talk) 09:37, 31 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]
- Eh-hem, BBC and Discovery work together to create great documentaries! :) We somehow get stuck with terrible narrators, though (Sigourney Weaver on Planet Earth and Oprah on Life). Feel lucky that you have David Attanborough. upstate NYer 03:21, 6 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  - Ahem indeed. :-) BBC did do all of the filming, Discovery just helped to pay for it. And as you say, put their own narrator in. As the Planet Earth article states, "Sigourney Weaver was brought in to replace David Attenborough as narrator, as it was thought her familiarity to American audiences would attract more viewers". Enough said. Anyway, I was talking about the Discovery Channel documentaries that they've done themselves. They seem to be sensationalist, appealing more to the short-attention-spanned kids than a mature, intelligent audience. Just an observation. :-) Ðiliff «» (Talk) 06:31, 7 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]
comment sound is an absolute pain. So too higher standards in that area is likely to result in a situation where featured videos are mostly going to show things that can be portrayed with the sound stripped out entirely.©Geni 15:37, 2 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not promoted --Makeemlighter (talk) 15:39, 5 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]